Wanted: 15 drivers to bring hot meals to senior citizens. One day or more each week. Must have own vehicle, valid driver’s license and proof of insurance. Pays in thank-yous from grateful meal recipients and warm, fuzzy feelings of helping someone in need.

The Lawrence Meals on Wheels weekday deliveries now exceed last summer’s total by about 25 clients.

In the last year, more doctors have prescribed special diets for their patients, said Kim Culliss, the program’s executive director. But about one-fifth of the nonprofit organization’s volunteer drivers – Kansas University students – have left town for the summer, and it has forced many of the remaining drivers to work extra days and routes.

“Lawrence is growing pretty rapidly it seems, so with that, the aging population is growing at quite a rate as well,” Culliss said. “That happened the same time that our students left. It’s left us in a bind.”

The 110 to 118 senior citizens who receive at least one meal per week represent the highest total since the program started in 1970 in Lawrence, and Culliss has added three routes to the Monday- through-Friday service.

Marvin Stohs, left, digs into his truck to pick up a hot lunch as his wife, Ruth Stohs, reads from the delivery list. The Stohs, pictured on Thursday, have been volunteers with the Meals On Wheels program for nine years. The program is short on drivers and has more deliveries to make than ever before.

The executive director prefers to assign about five drivers per route to help divide the Monday-through Friday-responsibilities, and if one person takes a vacation, the whole route is not jeopardized.

She hopes at least 15 drivers will volunteer soon to help take the pressure off some volunteers now pulling double duty.

Meals on Wheels buys the prepared meals from Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Drivers congregate each weekday between 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. at the hospital to pick up their deliveries, and they are usually finished within an hour after making about six stops.

The job is open to any volunteer. “Our drivers, they range in age from young mothers with young children, to at one time, our oldest driver was 90,” Culliss said.

Some recipients pay the $4.50 per meal, and others pay what they can, she said. As a nonprofit, the organization relies on fundraisers, donations, memorials, grants and funding from the Older Americans Act.

The drivers also provide daily interaction for meal recipients.

“We’re one step in keeping them able to keep living in their own homes,” Culliss said.